Two up, two down..

We are no longer undefeated.  We lost our last two games, the first against Ten Blades and them last night against Team Friendship.  Both are D3 level teams.  On the plus side, both losses were by only a single goal.  We lost to Ten Blades 2-3 and to Team Friendship 4-5.  Previous to last night, the closest Team Friendship score was 7-4, so we felt pretty good about that.  We even led for much of the 1st period.  A good couple of bad weeks.  

Undefeated... so far

We got canceled last week because of snow.  We were supposed to play our arch nemesis Punx.  I think the game is going to be tacked onto the end of the season.  We played Team America last night.  I like playing those guys.  They play hard, and their skill level and range is a great match for ours.  We had a little nastiness, and spent way too much time on the penalty kill, but came away with the win 5-3.   We got three of our goals in penalty situations- one on a power play, one shorthanded, and one while we were 4 on 4. 

We also lost one of our players to another team.  Justin jumped ship to a team that was supposed to play in D3- Team Friendship.  We did get an old player back though.  Probably the best player on the team when we won out first championship was a guy named Bryan.  He moved away to work on a reality show for a year and is back.  He hadn't skated since we won the championship, so he promptly threw up.  It gave us a great jumping off point to discuss new jerseys.  We're getting a custom sweater with names and everything.  We decided that instead of letting people use their own names, though, everyone is getting a nick name.  Bryan's is Lunchbox.  Mine is Gimli.  I can live with that!  Can't wait to see them!

All sorts of crazy things!

We started a new season last week, and it's an odd one.  We have six teams in D4, but that may change.  Two of the teams- Ten Blades and Team Friendship are D3 teams that have moved down, but may may move back up...  or not.  If not, it could throw a monkey wrench in the works, since one of our best players, Justin, is also playing for Team Friendship.  We also have a new team in the league this season- The Dahmerators.  We played them in our first game of the season and it was a bit of a blow out.  We beat them 10-1.  We basically stopped trying to score after our 10th goal in the 2nd, and worked on passing and breakouts.  I'm guessing one of the better players on the Dahmeraors decided enough was enough and he went coast to coast in the last few minutes and scored.  Our goalie, Kennean, was pissed he'd missed the shut out.

We played Ten Blast last night.  We played against them in the  combined D3/D4 Summer season last year.  They have some amazing skaters on their team, and really shouldn't be in D4 at all.  It was a physical but relatively friendly game.  The refs were definitely not on our side, though, and  we ended up in the penalty box a lot.  We played our guts out, and got the win- 6-5.  We led through most of the game, because of good defensive play and great goal tending.  At one point the score was 4-1.  Ten Blades were able to capitalize on the power plays.  The last time they scored was on a bogus holding call on Darren.  At that point Ten Blades took their only lead in the game- 4-5.  Right after Darren got out of the box, we scored again, and tied it up.  Of course, on pretty much the very next play, we took another penalty.  In an incredible turn of events though, Darren made up for his time in the box by scoring a short handed goal pretty much right off the face off.  it was pretty cool.  We tightened up defensively for the end of the penalty kill, and on my last shift, I got a cheap shot in the back from the left side defenseman I was playing against, number 20.  He was probably their best skater and he'd been skating circles around me all night.  I did manage to take the puck off his stick a few times, but of the most part, all I did was keep him from holding the puck for too long.  In the last push, he rushed the net and was between me and the net- I was covering a less skilled player on at the top of the circle.  I think it was Tony was down low and was able to get the puck in my direction.  I was able to get control of it, stick handle away from the kid I was playing against and was able to send the puck down the ice.  I had my back to number 20, and he skated at me fast, yelled at me and punched me in the back to keep me from shooting the puck.  I nearly lost control of my legs, but stayed on my skates and got to the bench.  It as my last shift, with about 1.30 left in the game.  Darren scored on the next shift.  They pulled their goalie and we nearly got an empty net goal, but we held on for the win.  Jared made an interesting observation- the beer goes faster when we win.  Undefeated to start the season, but Team America and Punx still to play.

On another note- we've decided to do a jersey redesign.  Besides the 4 or 5 of us with crested sweaters, everyone else on the team wears ratty sky blue practice jerseys.  We have a couple logos were looking at, and may change our colors- my vote is for grey and blue.  Flink and I are doing the leg work. 

 

It's the every other theory

I didn't play last week, because Alisha went to a show with a friend.  I got a message from Jared right after the game that Team America beat us 3-6.  That win meant that we would play them again in the playoffs.

We did... and lost- 2-4.  It was a god game, with a little heat- mainly from one guy who Darren kept calling Soccer Player.  Good stuff.  Team America came out strong and scored on their very first possession- which kind of sucked since I was on the ice.  They scored again pretty quickly after that as well.  We held them to 2 for a while and began to catch up.  The score was 2-3 by the third and in the last minute we pulled our goalie.  Unfortunately, they were able to score on the open net right as the buzzer went.  Then Soccer Player started cross checking people, including sending Z into the net. It could have erupted into a big blow up.  Luckily, calmer heads prevailed on our side and we let them make assess of themselves.

Wait until next season! 

And we heard that Team America beat The Punx 3-2 in a shoot out!  

Where did these guys come from?!?

It's been a couple of weeks.  I didn't do any hockey stuff last week.  I was sick for my Learn to Play Hockey class and Alisha took a bunch of friends to the Avalanche game against Chicago- a regular girls night- so I watched the kids.  I got the score from Jared a crushing 2-7 loss.  Damn those Punx!  We did hear that the Islaynders beat them the week we beat Team America. 

The Islaynders have come a long way this season.  We played them last night.  Although to be honest, I don't recognize many of the guys who played.  It was a one of those really tough but fun games that everyone loves.  Lots of action on the ice, lots of yelling at teammates, and lots of contact that, luckily, never leads to anger.  We ended the game tied at 2-2.  I had a great shot on goal that went just wide- I was pretty chuffed about that.  We went to a shoot-out and 12 rounds later, they beat us by by 2 shoot-out goals to one.  The final score was 2-3.  Didn't mind it at all.

We have our last regular game of the season next week against Team America.  We're pretty much guaranteed a second place finish, but since Big Bear seems to have lost the results from the 27th, we have no idea who we'll play in the playoffs.  It'll be either team America of the Islaynders.  If we make it the final, we'll most likely meet the Punx.  We haven't beaten them all season, but when we won the Spring 15 cup, we beat Team America for the first time that season, so...

I wanna be like... Francois?

I just watched Francois Beauchemin's game winner from the Avalanche v. Sabres win last night.  Only 32 seconds left in the game!  We did one better, though.  Eli scored our game winner with only 27 seconds left.  Ha!

We played the Islaynders, and they've made some distinct roster changes.  They have some seriously good players now, including a guy in my Learn to Play Hockey course.  They scored late in the first period, and took the lead into the intermission.  We came back right at the beginning of the second to tie it up, and then they scored again about 5 minutes later.  It was 1-2 heading into the third, but we were able to score again to get the tie, right at the beginning of the period.  Then came the game winner with seconds ticking away!

It was a great win, especially after our horrible performance from last week.  This game the total opposite.  We skated really well, made some decent passes and were able to keep the giveaways and  breaks to a minimum.  I think I played really well.  I was in on our second goal- scored by the other Paul- crashing the net and cycling the puck down low.  I also managed to really help put on a penalty kill that came late in the game.  Our goals were not pretty, but they did go in.

The game was a friendly affair, with only one minor incident, when we crashed the net early in the first.  A couple of guys, including Flink, went down hard, but unlike the Punx, both teams kept things under control.  Good stuff! 

It sucks to lose, and it really sucks to lose to bad winners

That's what the Punx were last night- bad winners- 0-5.  They've always been whiny and choppy, but it's worse when they are really playing well.  Besides all the complaints and dirty plays, they added snide comments, and overblown cellys to the game.  Granted, we didn't play very well- slow and complacent, giving up the puck every chance we got and never really playing a positional game...it made for a really long game.  Beh.